Systems and methods for Wi-Fi high efficiency preambles for resource unit allocation

ABSTRACT

Systems, apparatus, and methods to provide an indication of frequency resource unit (RU) allocation from a wireless access point (AP) to one or more station devices (STA) are disclosed. The AP may be configured to generate a protocol data unit including a high efficiency wireless (HEW) preamble that indicates the RU allocation corresponding to each of the STA. The indication of the RU allocation for each of the STA, as disclosed herein, may be encoded in fewer bits than providing a bitmap of the RU allocation for each of the STA. A predetermined RU pattern may be used to map RU (e.g., 26 tone units, 52 tone units, etc.) to a RU allocation index. This RU allocation pattern may be efficiently communicated to each of the STAs in the HEW preamble of the protocol data unit.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No.62/157,304, filed May 5, 2015, and U.S. Provisional Application No.62/157,376, also filed May 5, 2015.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This disclosure generally relates to systems and methods for Wi-Fi, andmore particularly to resource unit (RU) allocation in high efficiency(HE) Wi-Fi preambles.

BACKGROUND

Wireless devices are becoming widely prevalent and users of such devicesare increasingly requesting access to wireless channels high speed andreliability. Next generation wireless technologies and standards areunder development meet such demands. One such next generation wirelesslocal area network (WLAN), IEEE 802.11ax or High-Efficiency WLAN (HEW),is under development. HEW utilizes Orthogonal Frequency-DivisionMultiple Access (OFDMA) in channel allocation.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

Reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings, which are notnecessarily drawn to scale, and wherein:

FIG. 1 depicts a simplified schematic diagram of an example environmentwith a wireless local area network (WLAN) with an access point (AP) andone or more user devices, in accordance with example embodiments of thedisclosure.

FIG. 2 depicts a simplified block diagram illustrating an examplearchitecture of the AP of the example WLAN of FIG. 1, in accordance withexample embodiments of the disclosure.

FIG. 3 depicts a simplified block diagram illustrating an examplearchitecture of a user device (STA) of the environment of FIG. 1, inaccordance with example embodiments of the disclosure.

FIG. 4 depicts a datagram illustrating an example preamble of a physicallayer convergence protocol (PLCP) protocol data unit (PPDU) used forallocating frequency resource units (RU) by the AP to the STA, inaccordance with example embodiments of the disclosure.

FIG. 5 depicts a datagram illustrating example RU allocationpossibilities for a 20 MHz channel, in accordance with exampleembodiments of the disclosure.

FIG. 6 depicts a datagram illustrating example RU allocationpossibilities for a 40 MHz channel, in accordance with exampleembodiments of the disclosure.

FIG. 7 depicts a datagram illustrating example RU allocationpossibilities for a 80 MHz channel, in accordance with exampleembodiments of the disclosure.

FIG. 8 depicts a datagram illustrating example HE-SIG-B portion of theexample preamble of FIG. 3 with a common part and a STA specific part,in accordance with example embodiments of the disclosure.

FIG. 9 depicts a datagram illustrating an example RU allocation patternfor the 40 MHz channel, in accordance with example embodiments of thedisclosure.

FIG. 10 depicts a datagram illustrating an example HE-SIG-B portion withonly a STA specific part, in accordance with example embodiments of thedisclosure.

FIG. 11 depicts a datagram illustrating an example RU allocation patternfor the 20 MHz channel, in accordance with example embodiments of thedisclosure.

FIG. 12 depicts a datagram illustrating an example HE-SIG-B portionindicating a sequence of RU allocation information, in accordance withexample embodiments of the disclosure.

FIG. 13 depicts a datagram illustrating an example HE-SIG-B portionindicating a sequence of RU allocation information with an unallocatedRU, in accordance with example embodiments of the disclosure.

FIG. 14 depicts a datagram illustrating another example HE-SIG-B portionindicating a sequence of RU allocation information with an unallocatedRU, in accordance with example embodiments of the disclosure.

FIG. 15 depicts a flow diagram illustrating an example method forgenerating a high efficiency wireless preamble with a HE-SIG-B portionwith only a STA specific part of FIG. 10 indicating an allocation of RUsto respective STAs, in accordance with example embodiments of thedisclosure.

FIG. 16 depicts a flow diagram illustrating an example method forgenerating a high efficiency wireless preamble with a HE-SIG-B portionwith a common part and a STA specific part of any of FIG. 12, 13, or 14indicating an allocation of RUs to respective STAs, in accordance withexample embodiments of the disclosure.

FIG. 17 depicts a flow diagram illustrating an example method foridentifying an RU for transmitting and receiving data based at least inpart on a received PPDU, in accordance with example embodiments of thedisclosure.

FIG. 18 depicts a datagram of possible example multi-user multi-inputmulti-output (MU-MIMO) resource blocks for 20 MHz, 40 MHz, and 80 MHzbandwidth channels, in accordance with example embodiments of thedisclosure.

FIG. 19 depicts a datagram of possible MU partitions of a 40 MHzbandwidth with a minimum multi-user partition size for MU-MIMO for 242tones in accordance with example embodiments of the disclosure.

FIG. 20 depicts a block diagram of two options for indicating theresources for MU-MIMO in using an HE-SIG-B indication in accordance withan example embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 21 depicts a datagram that illustrates an example mechanism forindicating multi-user partition and spatial partition to a plurality ofstation devices, in accordance with example embodiments of thedisclosure.

FIG. 22 depicts a flow diagram illustrating an example method forgenerating a high efficiency wireless preamble with a HE-SIG-B portionwith a common part and a STA specific part indicating an allocation ofmulti-user partitions to respective STAs, in accordance with exampleembodiments of the disclosure.

FIG. 23 depicts a flow diagram illustrating an example method forreceiving a high efficiency wireless preamble with a HE-SIG-B portionwith a common part and a STA specific part indicating an allocation ofmulti-user partitions and spatial partitions to respective STAs, inaccordance with example embodiments of the disclosure.

FIG. 24 is a datagram of an example multi-user partition indexing for a80 MHz channel, in accordance with example embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 25 depicts a flow diagram illustrating an example method forgenerating a high efficiency wireless preamble with a HE-SIG-B portionwith only a STA specific part indicating an allocation index of amulti-user partition and an index of a spatial partition, in accordancewith example embodiments of the disclosure.

FIG. 26 depicts a flow diagram illustrating an example method forgenerating a high efficiency wireless preamble with a HE-SIG-B portionwith only a STA specific part indicating an allocation index of amulti-user partition and an index of a spatial partition, in accordancewith example embodiments of the disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION

Embodiments of the disclosure are described more fully hereinafter withreference to the accompanying drawings, in which example embodiments ofthe disclosure are shown. This disclosure may, however, be embodied inmany different forms and should not be construed as limited to theexample embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments areprovided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and willfully convey the scope of the disclosure to those skilled in the art.Like numbers refer to like, but not necessarily the same or identical,elements throughout.

Embodiments of the disclosure may provide systems, apparatus, andmethods for allocating resources of a wireless local area network(WLAN), such as a high efficiency wireless local area network (HEW) thatmay operate according to any variety of standards. In exampleembodiments, the systems, apparatus, and methods, as described herein,may operate in accordance with Institute of Electrical and ElectronicsEngineers (IEEE) 802.11ax standards or modifications thereto. In exampleembodiments, the HEW may operate in any suitable mode, includingorthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) mode, multi-usermulti-input multi-output (MU-MIMO) mode, and/or single user mode.

In accordance with example embodiments, a Wi-Fi access point (AP) may beconfigured to identify a number of user devices or stations (STA) withwhich it is to facilitate wireless communications. The STAs may beidentified by any variety of handshaking procedures, such as proceduresinvolving the broadcast of beacons from the AP and/or a request forconnection by the STAs, etc. The AP may allocate a partial accessidentification (PAID) to each of the STAs during the handshakingprocedure. The AP may then allocate frequency and/or temporal resourcesto the STAs with which it is to communicate. The AP may provide anindication of a frequency resource unit (RU) to each of the STAs withwhich the AP is to communicate and provide WLAN services.

The RUs, in example embodiments, may be a collection of tones within achannel (e.g., partitions of the total bandwidth of the channel). As anon-limiting example, a 20 MHz channel may be divided into 256 tones,242 of which may be used for data transmission and/or reception. Asanother non-limiting example, a 40 MHz channel may be divided into 512tones, 484 of which may be used for data transmission and/or reception.As yet another non-limiting example, a 80 MHz channel may be dividedinto 1024 tones, 968 of which may be used for data transmission and/orreception. It will be appreciated that there may be any suitable channelbandwidth and number of tones in accordance with example embodiments ofthe disclosure and that the disclosure is not limited to the examplesdiscussed herein. A RU may have any variety of size in the frequencydomain. For example a minimum sized RU may include 26 tones. Other RUsmay have 52 tones, 106 tones, 242 tones, 484 tones, or the like.

In example embodiments, the AP may generate a physical layer convergenceprotocol (PCPL) protocol data unit (PPDU) that includes a payloadsection and a high efficiency wireless (HEW) preamble section. Thepreamble section may include a number of portions. In exampleembodiments, there may be a legacy preamble portion (L-SIG) that mayenable the PPDU to be backward compatible for communications with STAsthat may be operating using standards prior to IEEE 802.11 ax. The HEWpreamble may further include a HE-SIG-A portion and a HE-SIG-B portion.The HE-SIG-A portion may provide information that enables the decodingof the HE-SIG-B section by the STAs that receive the PPDU. Thisinformation may include, for example, modulation and coding scheme (MCS)of the HE-SIG-B, the length of HE-SIG-B, and/or the guard interval (GI)length of HE-SIG-B. In example embodiments, the HE-SIG-A may alsoprovide timing information related to the duration of the current RUallocations for each of the STAs.

The HE-SIG-B, in some example embodiments, may only have a STA specificpart. In these example embodiments, the STA specific part may include aportion carrying information for each of the STAs with which the AP isto communicate and provide a corresponding RU allocation. Theinformation for each of the STA may include the PAID of the STA toindicate to the STA to listen, a RU allocation index that indicates theRU allocation for that STA, a MCS index to indicate the modulation andcoding scheme (MCS) for that STA, and a CRC. In accordance with exampleembodiments of the disclosure, there may be fewer or additional dataitems that may be communicated to each of the STAs via the STA specificpart of the HE-SIG-B. The RU allocation index may, in exampleembodiments, indicate a particular RU allocation in a fixed RU pattern.For example, a 20 MHz channel may be divided into 15 possible RUallocation blocks and set as a RU pattern for that 20 MHz channel. Inthis case, the 15 different RU allocation blocks may be indexed (e.g.,such as by using 4 bits). Therefore, with a 20 MHz channel, in exampleembodiments, a 4 bit RU allocation index may be communicated to each STAwithin the STA specific part of the HE-SIG-B to indicate a correspondingRU allocation for each of the STAs. The STAs may be preprogrammed withthe mapping of the RU allocation index to particular RUs, such that theSTA may determine its RU allocation as assigned by the AP. The 4 bit RUallocation index of the 20 MHz channel may be shorter for each of theSTAs than conveying this information using a bitmap (e.g., 9 bitbitmap). It will be appreciated that in a 40 MHz channel with a minimumRU size of 26 tones, a 5 bit RU allocation index may be used.Furthermore, in a 80 MHz channel with a minimum RU size of 26 tones, a 7bit RU allocation index may be used. It is seen, therefore, that byhaving a fixed RU pattern, each of the potential RU allocations may beindexed and communicated relatively more efficiently to the STAs than ifa bitmap was transmitted to each of the STAs.

In other example embodiments, the HE-SIG-B may include both a commonpart and a STA specific part. The common part may be used by all of theSTAs with which the AP is to provide an RU allocation. This common partmay include a RU pattern index, that references a particular RU patternor mapping of RU within a channel. Once the STAs identify the RU patternfrom the common part, the STAs will know the RU allocation indexesassociated with that RU pattern. In this case, the AP, in the STAspecific part of the HE-SIG-B, may indicate, for each STA (e.g., asreferenced by each STA's PAID) the RU allocation index referenced to theRU pattern index, as indicated in the common part of the HE-SIG-B. Inthis way, a fewer number of bits may be communicated to each of the STAswithin the STA specific part of the HE-SIG-B. Accordingly, a fewernumber of bits may be used for the purposes of the RU allocation to theSTAs in the PPDU.

When the AP and the STAs operate in MU-MIMO mode, in exampleembodiments, the channels may not partitioned with as fine a granularityas when operating in OFDMA mode. In this case, the channel may bepartitioned into larger sub-channel(s). For example, a block of 26 tonesmay not be used in MU-MIMO mode. Instead, in example embodiments, aminimum size multi-user (MU) partition may be 20 MHz. Thus in this case,a 20 MHz channel may only have one MU partition (e.g., the whole 20 MHzchannel). A 40 MHz channel in MU-MIMO mode may be divided into two 20MHz MU partitions or one 40 MHz MU partition. Similarly, a 80 MHzchannel may be partitioned into one 80 MHz MU partition, two 40 MHz MUpartitions, four 20 MHz MU partitions, or one 40 MHz MU partition andtwo 20 MHz MU partitions. Additionally, in MU-MIMO mode, spatialpartitions are also to be allocated to the STAs that are to communicatewith the AP.

In example embodiments, when operating in MU-MIMO mode, the AP may use aHE-SIG-B with both a common part and STA specific parts for each of theSTAs with which the AP is to communicate. In these example embodiments,the MU partition may be indicated in the HE-SIG-A portion of thepreamble structure of the PPDU and the spatial partitions (e.g., streamallocations) may be indicated in the HE-SIG-B common part. In someexample embodiments, the field in the HE-SIG-A portion that indicatesthe length of HE-SIG-B may be used to indicate the number of MUpartitions of the channel. The STAs may be configured to determine thelength of the HE-SIG-B common part based at least in part on the MUpartition information in HE-SIG-A. In the HE-SIG-B common part, spatialindices for each MU partition may be provided. At this point, thecombination of the HE-SIG-A and HE-SIG-B common part providesinformation about the total channel size bandwidth (e.g., 20 MHz, 40MHz, 80 MHz, etc.), the total number of MU partitions, and the spatialpartitions (e.g., groups of streams allocated to each of the MUpartitions). The HE-SIG-B STA specific part may include an orderedidentifier of each of the STAs, such that based at least in part on theorder of a particular STA in the HE-SIG-B in the STA specific part ofthe HE-SIG-B, the STA may identify its MU partition and spatialpartition. In these example embodiments, the STA may identify its ownPAID and then determine the order of its PAID relative to other STAs.Using the determined order, the STA may identify its particular MUpartition and spatial partition based at least in part on theinformation carried in the HE-SIG-A and the HE-SIG-B common part.

In some example embodiments, when operating in MU-MIMO mode, the AP mayuse a HE-SIG-B with only a STA specific part and no common part. Inthese cases, the each of the STA specific parts, corresponding to eachof the STAs with which the AP is to communicate, may carry informationincluding the identification of the corresponding STA, an indexindicating a MU partition for that STA, and an index indicating aspatial partition for that STA. The data grouping of the STA identifier,allocated MU partition, and allocated stream(s) may be provided for eachof the STAs to which the PPDU is to be sent by the AP.

FIG. 1 depicts a simplified schematic diagram of an example environment100 with a wireless local area network (WLAN) 130 with an access point(AP) 120 and one or more user devices 124, 126, 128, in accordance withexample embodiments of the disclosure. In example embodiments, the oneor more user devices 124, 126, 128 and one or more access point(s) (AP)120 may communicate in accordance with IEEE 802.11 communicationstandards, including IEEE 802.11 ax or modifications thereto. Thecomputing device(s), user device(s), or stations 124, 126, 128(hereinafter referred to individually or collectively as STA 140 or STAs140, respectively) may be mobile devices that are non-stationary and donot have fixed locations. Alternatively, the STAs may be stationarydevice. The one or more APs 120 may be stationary and have fixedlocations, in some example embodiments. In other example embodiments,the AP 120 may also be mobile.

In accordance with some IEEE 802.11 standards, including, for exampleIEEE 802.11ax (High-Efficiency WLAN (HEW)) embodiments, the AP 120 mayoperate as a master station which may be arranged to contend for awireless medium (e.g., during a contention period) to receive exclusivecontrol of the medium for an HEW control period. The master station maytransmit an HEW master-sync transmission at the beginning of the HEWcontrol period. During the HEW control period, HEW stations 140 maycommunicate with the master station in accordance with a non-contentionbased multiple access technique. This is unlike conventional Wi-Ficommunications in which devices communicate in accordance with acontention-based communication technique, rather than a multiple accesstechnique. During the HEW control period, the master station maycommunicate with HEW stations using one or more HEW frames. Furthermore,in some example embodiments, during the HEW control period, legacystations may refrain from communicating. In some embodiments, themaster-sync transmission may be referred to as an HEW control andschedule transmission.

In some embodiments, the multiple-access technique used during the HEWcontrol period may be a scheduled orthogonal frequency division multipleaccess (OFDMA) technique, although this is not a requirement. In otherembodiments, the multiple access technique may be a time-divisionmultiple access (TDMA) technique or a frequency division multiple access(FDMA) technique. In certain embodiments, the multiple access techniquemay be a space-division multiple access (SDMA) technique.

One or more illustrative user device(s) 120 may be operable by one ormore users 110. The user device(s) 120 may include any suitableprocessor-driven user device including, but not limited to, a desktopcomputing device, a set-top box (STB), a game console, a laptopcomputing device, a server, a router, a notebook computer, a netbookcomputer, a web-enabled television, a switch, a smartphone, a tablet,wearable wireless device (e.g., bracelet, watch, glasses, ring, etc.),combinations thereof, or the like.

Any of the STA(s) 140 (e.g., user devices 124, 126, 128), and AP 110 maybe configured to communicate with each other via one or morecommunications networks 130 wirelessly. Indeed the communicationsnetwork (e.g., WLAN 130) may be established and used according to thesystems, apparatus, and methods, as described herein. Further, any ofthe communications networks 130 may have any suitable communicationrange associated therewith and may include, for example, global networks(e.g., the Internet), metropolitan area networks (MANs), wide areanetworks (WANs), local area networks (LANs), or personal area networks(PANs). In addition, WLAN 130 may configured to connect to any type ofmedium over which network traffic may be carried via the AP 110including, but not limited to, coaxial cable, twisted-pair wire, opticalfiber, a hybrid fiber coaxial (HFC) medium, microwave terrestrialtransceivers, radio frequency communication mediums, white spacecommunication mediums, ultra-high frequency communication mediums,satellite communication mediums, or any combination thereof.

Any of the STA(s) 140 (e.g., user devices 124, 126, 128), and AP 120 mayinclude one or more communications antennae 112, 142. Communicationsantenna may be any suitable type of antenna corresponding to thecommunications protocols used by the user device(s) 140 (e.g., userdevices 124, 124 and 128), and AP 120. Some non-limiting examples ofsuitable communications antennas 112, 142 include Wi-Fi antennas,Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 familyof standards compatible antennas, directional antennas, non-directionalantennas, dipole antennas, folded dipole antennas, patch antennas,multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antennas, or the like. Thecommunications antenna may be communicatively coupled to a radiocomponent to transmit and/or receive signals, such as communicationssignals to and/or from the user devices 120.

In example embodiments, the AP 120 may be configured to receive anindication of STAs 140 that would like to interact and receive network130 connectivity via the AP 120. The AP 120, in example embodiments, mayreceive an indication from each of the STAs 140 requestingcommunications resources (e.g., RU allocation, MU partitions, spatialpartitions, etc.). In example embodiments, the AP 120 may be aware ofthe STAs 140 with which it is to interact by one or more handshakingprocesses performed with the STAs 140. Such handshaking processes mayresult in identification and/or assignment of identification (e.g.,partial access identification (PAID), etc.) by the AP 120 for each ofthe STAs 140.

When the STAs 140 have been identified by the AP 120, in exampleembodiments, the AP 120 may be configured to determine an allocation ofcommunications resources for each of the STAs 140. In some exampleembodiments, the determination of resources to allocate to each of theSTAs 140 may be based at least in part on a request for communicationresources and/or an indication of the communication resource needs ofthe various STAs 140 with which the AP 120 is to interact.

The AP 120, after determining the mode in which to operate and theresources to allocate to each of the STAs, may generate a PPDU with apreamble that indicates the resources that are allocated to each of theSTAs. This indication of the resources in OFDMA mode may be of indexedblocks of tones and/or ordered blocks of tones. In the case of MU-MIMOmode, particularly when the HE-SIG-B includes a common part and a STAspecific part, the indication of the resources may in based on orderinga listing of the resources (e.g., MU partition and/or spatialpartitions) and matching the ordering to an ordering of the STAs, suchas a ordered listing of the STAs in a STA specific portion of theHE-SIG-B. Alternatively, in the MU-MIMO mode, when the HE-SIG-B has onlya STA specific part, the MU partition and the spatial partition may eachbe indexed for each of the STAs in the STA specific part of theHE-SIG-B.

FIG. 2 depicts a simplified block diagram illustrating an examplearchitecture of the AP 120 of the example WLAN 100 of FIG. 1, inaccordance with example embodiments of the disclosure. The AP 120 mayinclude one or more antennas 112. The AP 120 may further include one ormore processor(s) 200, one or more I/O interface(s) 202, one or moretransceiver(s) 204, one or more storage interface(s) 206, and one ormore memory or storage 210.

The communications antenna 112 may be any suitable type of antennacorresponding to the communications protocols used by the AP 110. Somenon-limiting examples of suitable communications antennas 112 includeWi-Fi antennas, IEEE 802.11 family of standards compatible antennas,directional antennas, non-directional antennas, dipole antennas, foldeddipole antennas, patch antennas, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO)antennas, or the like. The communications antenna may be communicativelycoupled to the transceiver 204 to transmit and/or receive signals, suchas communications signals to and/or from STAs 140.

The processor(s) 200 of the AP 110 may be implemented as appropriate inhardware, software, firmware, or combinations thereof. Software orfirmware implementations of the processors 200 may includecomputer-executable or machine-executable instructions written in anysuitable programming language to perform the various functionsdescribed. Hardware implementations of the processors 200 may beconfigured to execute computer-executable or machine-executableinstructions to perform the various functions described. The one or moreprocessors 200 may include, without limitation, a central processingunit (CPU), a digital signal processor (DSP), a reduced instruction setcomputer (RISC), a complex instruction set computer (CISC), amicroprocessor, a microcontroller, a field programmable gate array(FPGA), or any combination thereof. The AP 110 may also include achipset (not shown) for controlling communications between one or moreprocessors 200 and one or more of the other components of the AP 110.The processors 200 may also include one or more application specificintegrated circuits (ASICs) or application specific standard products(ASSPs) for handling specific data processing functions or tasks. Incertain embodiments, the AP 110 may be based on an Intel® Architecturesystem and the one or more processors 200 and chipset may be from afamily of Intel® processors and chipsets, such as the Intel® Atom®processor family.

The one or more I/O interfaces 202 may enable the use of one or more(I/O) device(s) or user interface(s), such as a keyboard and/or mouse.The storage interface(s) 206 may enable the AP 110 to store information,such as status and/or location information or deployment information instorage devices and/or memory 210.

The transmit/receive or radio component 204 may include any suitableradio for transmitting and/or receiving radio frequency (RF) signals inthe bandwidth and/or channels corresponding to the communicationsprotocols utilized by the AP 120 to communicate with STAs 140 or otherAPs 120. The transceiver 204 may include hardware and/or software tomodulate communications signals according to pre-establishedtransmission protocols. The transceiver 204 may further have hardwareand/or software instructions to communicate via one or more Wi-Fi and/orWi-Fi direct protocols, as standardized by the Institute of Electricaland Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 standards. In certainembodiments, the transceiver 204, in cooperation with the communicationsantennas 112, may be configured to communicate via 2.4 GHz channels(e.g. 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11n), 5 GHz channels (e.g. 802.11n,802.11ac), or 60 GHZ channels (e.g. 802.11 ad), or 802.11 ax standards.In alternative embodiments, non-Wi-Fi protocols may be used forcommunications between adjacent AP 110, such as Bluetooth, dedicatedshort-range communication (DSRC), or other packetized radiocommunications. The transceiver 204 may include any known receiver andbaseband suitable for communicating via the communications protocols ofAP 120. The radio component may further include a low noise amplifier(LNA), additional signal amplifiers, an analog-to-digital (A/D)converter, one or more buffers, and digital baseband.

The memory 210 may include one or more volatile and/or non-volatilememory devices including, but not limited to, magnetic storage devices,read only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM),static RAM (SRAM), synchronous dynamic RAM (SDRAM), double data rate(DDR) SDRAM (DDR-SDRAM), RAM-BUS DRAM (RDRAM), flash memory devices,electrically erasable programmable read only memory (EEPROM),non-volatile RAM (NVRAM), universal serial bus (USB) removable memory,or combinations thereof.

The memory 210 may store program instructions that are loadable andexecutable on the processor(s) 200, as well as data generated orreceived during the execution of these programs. Turning to the contentsof the memory 210 in more detail, the memory 210 may include one or moreoperating systems (O/S) 212, an applications module 214, a preamblemodule 216, and a resource allocation module 218. Each of the modulesand/or software may provide functionality for the AP 110, when executedby the processors 200. The modules and/or the software may or may notcorrespond to physical locations and/or addresses in memory 210. Inother words, the contents of each of the modules 212, 214, 216, 218 maynot be segregated from each other and may, in fact be stored in at leastpartially interleaved positions on the memory 210.

The O/S module 212 may have one or more operating systems storedthereon. The processors 200 may be configured to access and execute oneor more operating systems stored in the (O/S) module 212 to operate thesystem functions of the electronic device. System functions, as managedby the operating system may include memory management, processorresource management, driver management, application software management,system configuration, and the like. The operating system may be anyvariety of suitable operating systems including, but not limited to,Google® Android®, Microsoft® Windows®, Microsoft® Windows® Server®,Linux, Apple® OS-X®, or the like.

The application(s) module 214 may contain instructions and/orapplications thereon that may be executed by the processors 200 toprovide one or more functionality associated with the resource unit (RU)allocation to each of the STAs 140 and communications with the STAs 140.These instructions and/or applications may, in certain aspects, interactwith the (O/S) module 212 and/or other modules of the AP 120. Theapplications module 214 may have instructions, software, and/or codestored thereon that may be launched and/or executed by the processors200 to execute one or more applications and functionality associatedtherewith, including, for example, functionality associated withallocating communicative resources to one or more STAs 140.

The preamble module 216 may have instructions stored thereon that, whenexecuted by the processors 200, enable the AP 120 to provide a varietyof preamble generation of the PPDU and communications functionality. Inone aspect, the processors 200 may be configured to generate a legacyportion of the HEW preamble (L-SIG), HE-SIG-A, and HE-SIG-B. In exampleembodiments, the HE-SIG-B, additionally may carry a RU allocation indexcorresponding to each of the STAs to which an RU allocation is to bemade that may be a fixed index or an index referenced to a RU pattern.This RU allocation index may indicate the RU that is being assigned toeach of the STAs. The RU allocation index may be indexed topredetermined blocks that may be allocated and a constellation thereof.

The processor(s) 200 may further be configured to order, in sequence, RUpartitions of STAs 140 in a common part of the HE-SIG-B signaling field.The processor(s) 200 may still further be configured to order the STAsand their identifiers in the STA specific part of the HE-SIG-B in amanner such that the order of the STAs in the STA specific partcorresponds to the order of the RUs in the HE-SIG-B common part. Thus,in this way, the processor(s) 200 may be configured to communicate RUinformation to the STAs 140 that it services in a relatively efficientand compact manner.

The processor(s) 200 may still further be configured, in MU-MIMO mode,to provide an indication of the MU partitions in a HE-SIG-A portion ofthe preamble. In example embodiments, the HE-SIG-A and/or legacypreamble portions may be generated by the processor(s) 200 to carry anindication that MU-MIMO mode of operation is to be used. Theprocessor(s) 200 may also be configured to generate the HE-SIG-A tocarry an indication of the total channel bandwidth available in MU-MIMOmode (e.g., 20 MHz channel, 40 MHz channel, or 80 MHz channel). HE-SIG-Amay still further carry an indication of a MU partition scheme. In thecase of a 20 MHz channel with a minimum 20 MHz partition, there may onlybe one option for MU partitions (e.g., a single 20 MHz partition or thewhole channel bandwidth). In this case, no bits may be needed toindicate the MU partition scheme, since a STA device 140 would know fromthe MU-MIMO mode of operation and the minimum partition size, that thereis only one partition scheme. In the case of a 40 MHz channel with aminimum 20 MHz MU partition, there may be two options for MU partitionscheme: 1. One 40 MHz MU partition; or 2. Two 20 MHz partitions. In thiscase, the processor(s) 200 may be configured to use a single bit (e.g.,each of the two states (0 or 1) of the single bit indicating one each ofthe possible MU partition schemes) may be used to indicate the MUpartition scheme within the HE-SIG-A field. For the case of 80 MHzchannel with a minimum 20 MHz partition, as discussed above, there maybe seven different MU partition schemes. Thus, the processor(s) 200 maybe configured to use three bits in the HE-SIG-A to represent any of theseven MU partition schemes. In this way, the processor(s) 200 may beconfigured to generate a HE-SIG-A field that indicates the MU partitionscheme to the STAs via the preamble of the PPDU.

The processor(s) 200, by executing the instructions in the preamblemodule 216 may still further be configured to indicate spatialpartitions in a common part of a HE-SIG-B partition. In some exampleembodiments, there may be 4 potential streams per MU partition. In thecase of 4 potential streams per MU partition, there may be as many as 10different permutations of the stream allocation within each MUpartition. Thus, the 10 possibilities of allocating the streams may beindexed by 4 bits within the HE-SIG-B common part for each MU partition.In other example embodiments, there may be 8 potential streams per MUpartition. In the case of 8 potential streams per MU partition, theremay be as many as 66 different permutations, as shown in Table 3 below)of the stream allocation within each MU partition. Thus, the 66possibilities of allocating the streams may be indexed by 7 bits withinthe HE-SIG-B common part for each MU partition. It will be appreciatedthat based at least in part on the number of MU partitions and spatialpartitions, each of the STAs 140 may be able to identify how many STAs140 are to be allocated resources under MU-MIMO by the processor(s) 200.Each of the STAs may further recognize, based at least in part on apredetermined number of bits corresponding to each STA in the STAspecific part of HE-SIG-B, how long the HE-SIG-B STA specific part isand when a particular STA's (e.g., self) information is to beascertained.

The processor(s) 200 may still further be configured to orderidentifiers (e.g., PAID) of the STAs 140 with which it is to communicatein an order such that the order corresponds with the order of the MUpartitions, as indicated in the HE-SIG-A, and the order of the spatialpartitions in the common part of HE-SIG-B. It will be appreciated thatin MU-MIMO mode, the channels may not be partitioned in as fine of agranularity as in the OFDMA mode. In these example embodiments, the STAmay identify its own PAID and then determine the order of its PAIDrelative to other STAs. Using the determined order, the STA may identifyits particular MU partition and spatial partition based at least in parton the information carried in the HE-SIG-A and the HE-SIG-B common part.

For example, if there are three STAs 140 for which the processor(s) 200are allocating MU resources of a 40 MHz channel with up to 8 streams perMU partition, the AP 110 may indicate, in the HE-SIG-A, that there aretwo partitions of 20 MHz channels each. The processor(s) 200 may furtherindicate, by way of a first spatial index corresponding to the first MUpartition, provided in the HE-SIG-B common part, that 4 streams withinthe first MU partition are allocated to a first allocation and 2 streamsare allocated to a second allocation. The processor(s) 200, by way of asecond spatial index provided in the HE-SIG-B common part, may indicatethat all 8 streams within the second MU partition are a singlepartition. The processor(s) 200 still further may be configured toindicate an order of the STAs within the HE-SIG-B station specific part,such as by ordering the PAID of each of the three STAs. For example, theorder indicated may be STA 1, STA 2, and then STA 3. In this case, STA 1may be indicated to have assigned resources of the first MU partitionand 4 streams, STA 2 may be indicated to have assigned the first MUpartition and 2 streams, and STA 3 may be indicated to have the secondMU partition and the 8 streams.

In some example embodiments, when operating in MU-MIMO mode, the AP mayuse a HE-SIG-B with only a STA specific part and no common part. Inthese cases, the processor(s) 200 may be configured to generate theHE-SIG-B such that each of the STA specific parts, corresponding to eachof the STAs with which the AP is to communicate, may carry informationincluding the identification of the corresponding STA, an indexindicating a MU partition for that STA, and an index indicating aspatial partition for that STA. The data grouping of the STA identifier,allocated MU partition, and allocated stream(s) may be provided for eachof the STAs to which the PPDU is to be sent by the AP.

The resource allocation module 218 may have instructions stored thereonthat, when executed by the processor(s) 200, enable the AP 120 toprovide a variety of RU allocation functionality. The processor(s) 200may be configured to identify a RU allocation for each of the STAs 140based on priority and/or expected data traffic associated with each ofthe STAs 140. The processor(s) 200 may further be configured todetermine if the HE-SIG-B is to have a common part or only a STAspecific part. When the HE-SIG-B is to provide an indication of a RUpattern and a RU allocation referenced to that RU pattern, then theHE-SIG-B may have both a common part and a STA specific part. The RUpattern may be indicated, such as by an RU pattern index, in the commonpart and the RU allocation index referenced to the RU pattern in the STAspecific part.

It will be appreciated that there may be overlap in the functionality ofthe instructions stored in the operating systems (O/S) module 212, theapplications module 214, the preamble module 216, and/or the resourceallocation module 218. In fact, the functions of the aforementionedmodules 212, 214, 216, 218 may interact and cooperate seamlessly underthe framework of the AP 110. Indeed, each of the functions described forany of the modules 212, 214, 216, 218 may be stored in any module 212,214, 216, 218 in accordance with certain embodiments of the disclosure.Further, in certain embodiments, there may be one single module thatincludes the instructions, programs, and/or applications describedwithin the operating systems (O/S) module 212, the applications module214, the preamble module 216, and/or the resource allocation module 218.

FIG. 3 depicts a simplified block diagram illustrating an examplearchitecture of a user device (STA) 140 of the environment 100 of FIG.1, in accordance with example embodiments of the disclosure. The STA 140may include one or more antennas 142. The STA 140 may further includeone or more processor(s) 300, one or more I/O interface(s) 302, one ormore transceiver(s) 304, one or more storage interface(s) 306, and oneor more memory or storage 310. The descriptions of the one or moreantennas 142, the one or more processor(s) 300, one or more I/Ointerface(s) 302, one or more transceiver(s) 304, one or more storageinterface(s) 306, and one or more memory or storage 310 of the STA 140of FIG. 3 may be substantially similar to the descriptions of the one ormore antennas 112, the one or more processor(s) 200, one or more I/Ointerface(s) 202, one or more transceiver(s) 204, one or more storageinterface(s) 206, and one or more memory or storage 210, respectively ofthe AP 120 of FIG. 2, and in the interest of brevity, will not berepeated here.

The memory 310 may store program instructions that are loadable andexecutable on the processor(s) 300, as well as data generated orreceived during the execution of these programs. Turning to the contentsof the memory 310 in more detail, the memory 310 may include one or moreoperating systems (O/S) 312, an applications module 314, a STAinformation module 316, and a resource allocation determination module318. Each of the modules and/or software may provide functionality forthe STA 140, when executed by the processors 300. The modules and/or thesoftware may or may not correspond to physical locations and/oraddresses in memory 310. In other words, the contents of each of themodules 312, 314, 316, 318 may not be segregated from each other andmay, in fact be stored in at least partially interleaved positions onthe memory 310. The descriptions of the O/S module 312 and theapplication(s) module 314 of the STA 140 of FIG. 3 may be substantiallysimilar to the descriptions of the O/S module 212 and the application(s)module 214 of the AP 120 of FIG. 2 and in the interest of brevity, willnot be repeated here.

The STA information module 316 may have instructions stored thereonthat, when executed by the processor(s) 300, enable the STA 140 toprovide a variety of Wi-Fi communications functionality. Theprocessor(s) 300 may be configured to receive a PPDU and identify thepreamble therefrom. This may involve a process of parsing the bitscontained in the PPDU preamble. The processor(s) 300 may further beconfigured to identify a first part of the HEW preamble (e.g., HE-SIG-A)to decode a second part of the preamble (e.g., HE-SIG-B). Theprocessor(s) 300 may still further be configured to use the informationcarried in the HE-SIG-A, such as MCS information and/or lengthinformation, to decode the HE-SIG-B.

The resource allocation determination module 318 may have instructionsstored thereon that may be executed by the processors 300 to receive andanalyze PPDUs from the AP 120 to identify a RU allocation. Once theHE-SIG-B is decoded, such as by the processes enabled by the STAinformation module 316, the processor(s) 300 may be configured todetermine if the HE-SIG-B has a common part or only a STA specific part.If there is a common part, the processor(s) 300 may be configured toidentify a RU pattern index from the common part. The processor(s) 300may further be configured to access a mapping, such as a look-up tablestored in memory 310, that maps the RU pattern to a grouping of RUallocation indices corresponding to particular RU blocks (e.g., definingthe frequency range of the RU). At this point the RU allocation indexallocated to the STA 140 may be determined from the STA specific part ofthe HE-SIG-B. In this case, the STA 140 may look for its PAID within theSTA specific part of the HE-SIG-B to determine its corresponding RUallocation index, as referenced to the RU pattern indicated by the RUpattern index in the common part of the HE-SIG-B.

In other example embodiments, the processor(s) 300, by executing theinstructions stored in the resource allocation determination module 318,may identify that the HE-SIG-B includes only a STA specific part. Inthis case, the processor(s) 300 may be configured to determine thechannel bandwidth (e.g., 20 MHz, 40 MHz, 80 MHz, etc.) and identify apredetermined RU map associated with the channel bandwidth. The STAspecific part will carry a RU allocation index that may be mapped tovarious RU blocks according to the predetermined RU map that correspondsto the channel bandwidth. By knowing the RU allocation index, the STA140 may know the RU parameters (e.g., frequency start or center pointand range).

In still further example embodiments, the processor(s) 300, by executinginstructions stored in the resource allocation determination module 318,may further be configured to identify if MU-MIMO mode is to be used,based at least in part on information that may be contained in legacyfields and/or the HE-SIG-A fields of the preamble. The processor(s) 300may still further be configured to determine the channel size and the MUpartition scheme from information contained in the HE-SIG-A. In someexample embodiments, the MU partition scheme information in the HE-SIG-Amay occupy a location that may otherwise indicate the length of theHE-SIG-B and/or the HE-SIG-B common part. From the HE-SIG-B common part,the processor(s) 300 may be configured to identify spatial partitionscorresponding to each of the MU partitions. From the HE-SIG-B STAspecific parts, the processor(s) 300 may be configured to determine itsown MU partition and streams based upon its order among all the STAsthat are to be allocated resources.

In still further example embodiments, when operating in MU-MIMO modewith a HE-SIG-B with only a STA specific part (e.g., without a commonpart), the processor(s) 300 may be configured to identify its MUpartition and spatial partition information from the STA specific partcorresponding to itself. In these cases, the processor(s) 300 mayidentify its own PAID in the STA specific part and then identify acorresponding MU partition index and a corresponding spatial index.Based at least in part on the MU partition index and the spatial index,the processor(s) 300 may be configured to identify the resources it hasavailable for the purposes of data transmission and reception.

It will be appreciated that there may be overlap in the functionality ofthe instructions stored in the operating systems (O/S) module 312, theapplications module 314, the STA information module 316, and theresource allocation module 318. In fact, the functions of theaforementioned modules 312, 314, 316, 318 may interact and cooperateseamlessly under the framework of the STAs 140. Indeed, each of thefunctions described for any of the modules 312, 314, 316, 318 may bestored in any module 312, 314, 316, 318 in accordance with certainembodiments of the disclosure. Further, in certain embodiments, theremay be one single module that includes the instructions, programs,and/or applications described within the operating systems (O/S) module312, the applications module 314, the STA information module 316, andthe resource allocation module 318.

FIG. 4 depicts a datagram illustrating an example preamble 400 of aphysical layer convergence protocol (PLCP) protocol data unit (PPDU)used for allocating frequency resource units (RU) by the AP 110 to theSTA 140, in accordance with example embodiments of the disclosure. Thepreamble 400 may include a legacy portion 402 and a high efficiencywireless local area network (HEW) portion 410. The HEW portion 410 mayhave two parts: HE-SIG-A 412 and HE-SIG-B 414. HE-SIG-A 412 may includecommon information shared by all of the scheduled STAs 140 and nearbyunscheduled STAs 140. HE-SIG-B 414 may include information for scheduledSTAs 140. HE-SIG-A 412 may include the information needed for decodingHE-SIG-B 414, such as MCS of HE-SIG-B 414, length of HE-SIG-B 414,and/or guard interval (GI) length of HE-SIG-B 414. The HE-SIG-B 414 mayinclude information needed for decoding the data of all scheduled STAs140. The preamble 400 may also include the legacy preamble portion(L-SIG) 402 to enable backward compatibility.

FIG. 5 depicts a datagram illustrating example RU allocationpossibilities 500 for a 20 MHz channel, in accordance with exampleembodiments of the disclosure. FIG. 6 depicts a datagram illustratingexample RU allocation possibilities 600 for a 40 MHz channel, inaccordance with example embodiments of the disclosure. FIG. 7 depicts adatagram illustrating example RU allocation possibilities 700 for a 80MHz channel, in accordance with example embodiments of the disclosure.The possible RU locations are illustrated in FIGS. 5, 6, and 7 with 20MHz, 40 MHz, and 80 MHz channels, respectively. For the purposes ofillustration, various RU spectral blocks are labeled in FIG. 5 for the20 MHz case. For example, a single 20 MHz (e.g., 242 tone) block 502 maybe allocated. Alternatively, 10 MHz blocks 504, 5 MHz blocks 506, 2.5MHz blocks 508, or a combination thereof, may be allocated. Thelocations of all RUs may be fixed in frequency domain. For example, allfeasible locations of 26-tone RU are shown in FIGS. 5, 6, and 7.Additionally, in example embodiments, the 26-tone RU may not cross242-tone RU boundaries. Further still, in example embodiments, a biggerRU (e.g., frequency range) in FIGS. 5, 6, and 7 can be replaced bysmaller RUs. The possible locations of the smaller RUs are specified.These constraints on the RUs may be used to map the RUs according to amapped RU pattern with an index ascribed to each RU. The RU index may beused to reference the RU in the HE-SIG-B 414. Therefore, these newlyposed constraints can be exploited for highly simplifying the signalingof the resource allocation for orthogonal frequency division multipleaccess (OFDMA) mode.

The mapped and indexed references to the RUs may be more efficient (e.g.require fewer bits) to communicate the RU allocation to the individualSTAs 140 than frequency resource allocation using bit maps. For example,each minimum RU (e.g., 26 tone RU) may be assigned an indication bit.The indication bits jointly specify how the whole frequency band ispartitioned. For 20 MHz channel, 8-9 indication bits may be used, andbecause of the newly posed constraints, the HE-SIG design may besimplified and/or made more efficient.

Instead of bit map, one may index each allocation pattern. There areonly 26 feasible allocation patterns for 20 MHz and 5 bits instead of 9bits may be enough to uniquely map each of the allocation patterns. Theallocation pattern is especially suitable for jointly indicating thefrequency allocation for all scheduled STAs 140. This joint indicationmay be placed in HE-SIG-A or a common part in HE-SIG-B. The RU patternmay be accessible by all of the STAs 140 and individual STA 140 RUallocation indexes may be referenced to the allocation map of the RUpattern (e.g., one of the 26 feasible allocation patterns).

FIG. 8 depicts a datagram illustrating example HE-SIG-B 800 portion ofthe example preamble of FIG. 3 with a common part 802 and a STA specificpart 804, in accordance with example embodiments of the disclosure. TheOFDMA mode may need to be signaled to the receiver STA 140. Indicationbits can be used in HE-SIG-A (e.g., placed prior to the HE-SIG-B toindicate the OFDMA mode). In addition, the legacy preamble (L-SIG) maybe repeated in time domain. The repeated legacy preamble may carry 1-4bits of additional information using BPSK modulation on the L-SIG datasequence. In example embodiments, the length field in the L-SIG may alsocarry 1 additional bit. Indication bits may be allocated in any or allof the three parts (e.g., L-SIG, HE-SIG-A, or HE-SIG-B). There may bethree basic modes: single user, OFDMA, and multiuser MIMO. There may beeight combinations of these modes. The implementation may be configuredto support all of these combinations. For simplicity, IEEE 802.11ax mayor may not support all combinations of the three modes. Namely, only thethree basic modes may be supported. Alternatively, in exampleembodiments, the three basic modes may only share the band in 20 MHzgranularity. For example, in a 80 MHz band, there are four 20 MHzsubchannels. Each basic mode can be provided on one or multiplesubchannels. However, within each subchannel, the mixing of basic modesmay not be supported. 4-8 bits may be needed for 80 MHz channel forallocating the 20 MHz subchannels to the basic modes.

The indication bits may indicate at least one of the following for thereceiver to decode HE-SIG-B, which may or may not contain a common partand contain one or multiple STA specific parts: (i) the length of thecommon part in HE-SIG-B if there is a common part in HE-SIG-B; (ii) thelength of each STA specific part if there is no common part in HE-SIG-B;(iii) the basic mode or modes used in the data portion after theHEW-preamble. The length of each STA specific part (e.g., with STAspecific information 824, 826, 828) may be defined to be the same forall three basic modes. However, this may not be efficient, since the STAspecific part for MU-MIMO usually consumes more bits than the other twomodes. Therefore, if there is no common part in HE-SIG-B, the indicationbits may specify one basic mode such that the receiver (e.g., STA 140)knows the corresponding length of each STA specific part for decodingHE-SIG-B. The HE-SIG-B, in example embodiments, may include STA specificinformation for each of the STAs 140 in the PPDU. The HE-SIG-B mayfurther include common information 822 shared by all of the STAs 140 inthe PPDU.

The common information may be used to indicate the signaling addressedto all of the scheduled STAs 140. The STA specific information may beused to indicate the signaling addressed to each individual STA. If thecommon information is in presence, these bits may be individuallyencoded (e.g., by channel coding). That means the common information maybe decoded before the STA specific information such that the length ofeach STA specific part can be known.

Before the HE-SIG-B, there should be indication bits to indicate whetherOFDMA or Multi-User MIMO (MU-MIMO) transmission is used in the currentPPDU. This signaling could be included in the HE-SIG-A and/or before theHE-SIG-A. If it is before HE-SIGA, it may be piggybacked in the repeatedL-SIG. The resource unit (RU) allocation or bandwidth allocation may besignaled by indicating a RU allocation pattern in the common part ofHE-SIG-B, in some example embodiments, or by indicating RU allocation inthe STA specific part of HE-SIG-B, in other example embodiments.

Each allocation pattern may be one partitioning of the whole band (e.g.80 MHz or a subchannel 20 MHz). Defining allocation patterns helps toreduce signaling overhead of bandwidth allocation. All scheduled STAs140 allocated bandwidths may be jointly specified by the indexedpattern. No individual specification for each STA's RU location and sizeis needed in these example embodiments. RU allocation pattern may bespecified in the common part of HE-SIG-B or, alternatively, HE-SIG-A.

Using the possible RU locations for 20 MHz, we have Table 1 whichincludes all of the allocation patterns for 20 MHz. There are 26 uniquepatterns, which can be indicated (e.g., referenced) by 5 bits. Each ofthese RU patterns (e.g., 26 of them) may be referenced in HE-SIG-Bcommon part or, alternatively the HE-SIG-A, using a 5 bit RU patternindex for a 20 MHz channel. Each pattern, in these example embodiments,may be a distinct partitioning of the 20 MHz channel using the definedRU sizes such as 26, 52, 242 tones. It will be appreciated thataccording to example embodiments, other RU sizes (e.g. 116 tones) may beused in RU allocation blocks.

TABLE 1 RU allocation patterns for 20 MHz Number of RUs in each patternNumber of patterns 1 1 3 1 4 2 5 5 6 6 7 6 8 4 9 1

Note that possible RU locations in a 40 MHz OFDMA PPDU may be equivalentto two replicas of the possible RU locations in a 20 MHz OFDMA PPDU plusa single pattern with a 484 tone RU. This means that 10 bits may be usedfor 40 MHz RU location indication. Note that possible RU locations in an80 MHz OFDMA PPDU is equivalent to two replicas of the possible RUlocations in a 40 MHz OFDMA PPDU plus a single pattern with a 996 toneRU. This means 20 bits may be used for 80 MHz RU location indication.

Note that for 80 MHz, if the number of scheduled STAs is limited, e.g.to 16 or the number of 26 tone RUs is limited, the number of allocationpatterns may be further reduced. For instance, if we combine some of the26 tone RUs in 40 MHz, we may get the possible RU locations as FIG. 9.FIG. 9 depicts a datagram illustrating an example RU allocation pattern900 for the 40 MHz channel, in accordance with example embodiments ofthe disclosure. Table 2 shows all of the possible allocation patternsfor the simplified 40 MHz. That means that 10 bits may be used to indexall of the possible RU allocation patterns for 80 MHz.

TABLE 1 RU partitions for simplified 40 MHz Number of RUs in eachpattern Number of patterns 1 1 2 1 4 2 5 4 6 3 7 4 8 6 9 4 10 1

FIG. 10 depicts a datagram illustrating an example HE-SIG-B portion 1000with only a STA specific part 1002, in accordance with exampleembodiments of the disclosure. Since the allocation pattern is to bedecoded by all scheduled STAs 140, it needs to be put in the common partof HE-SIG-B or HE-SIG-A. If the common part is not defined in HE-SIG-Bor there is no space in HE-SIG-A for the pattern index, then thebandwidth allocation information needs to be distributed in eachscheduled STA's specific part. The STA specific part 1002 may includeinformation sections 1004, 1006, 1008 corresponding to each of the STAs140 to which RU allocations are to be made. In these exampleembodiments, each of the sections may include a PAID of thecorresponding STA 140 and an RU allocation index for that STA 140.

FIG. 11 depicts a datagram illustrating an example RU allocation patternfor the 20 MHz channel, in accordance with example embodiments of thedisclosure. For a given bandwidth, if we assign one index to each of thepossible RU locations in FIG. 6, the possible RU locations may beindexed by 4 bits, 5 bits, or 7 bits for 20 MHz channel, 40 MHz channel,80 MHz channel, respectively. According to example embodiments, the RUallocation information may not be needed in the common information part.Instead, the AP 110 may put the RU location index of each STA 140 in theSTA's specific information 1004, 1006, 1008 in HE-SIG-B 1000 as shown inFIG. 10. In example embodiments, the RU allocation index for a 20 MHzchannel may correspond to the indices 1-15 as depicted as RU blocks inthe RU pattern 1110 of FIG. 11. The RU location index may indicate boththe location of the RU and also the size of the RU. In exampleembodiments, there may be any suitable number of the RU indexescorresponding to any suitable number of channel partitions.

FIG. 12 depicts a datagram illustrating an example HE-SIG-B portion 1200indicating a sequence of RU allocation information, in accordance withexample embodiments of the disclosure. After reading the RU partitioninformation (e.g., the allocation pattern in the common part ofHE-SIG-B), in embodiments where there is such a field, each STA 140 mayknow the band partition in the current PPDU. If one STA wants to furtherderive its RU assignment, there are two alternatives: (i) sequentiallyassign the RUs to the STAs listed in the STA specific part of HE-SIG-B;or (ii) explicitly indicate the non-allocated RU in the common part ofthe HE-SIG-B.

As an example in FIG. 12, if there are 4 RUs in the current PPDU, it mayindicate that there are no more than 4 STAs in the current PPDU. One STAmay determine its HE-SIG-B portion by checking the partial access ID(PAID) in the STA specific part of HE-SIG-B. If the STA finds its PAIDin the 1st position of the STA specific part of HE-SIG-B, then it mayindicate that the 1st RU is for the STA with its PAID in the firstportion of the STA specific portion. If the STA 140 finds its PAID inthe 2nd position of STA specific part of HE-SIG-B, it means the 2nd RUis for this STA 140. In this way, each of the STAs 140 may know its RUallocation.

If one RU is not allocated or is skipped, AP 110 may assign a special(e.g., blank or null) PAID which is not decodable by or known to any ofthe scheduled STA. As a result, all of the STAs 140 will skip that RU.FIG. 13 depicts a datagram illustrating an example HE-SIG-B 1300 portionindicating a sequence of RU allocation information with an unallocatedRU, in accordance with example embodiments of the disclosure.

Explicit indication of the non-allocated RU in the common part ofHE-SIG-B may be understood with reference to FIG. 14. FIG. 14 depicts adatagram illustrating another example HE-SIG-B portion 1400 indicating asequence of RU allocation information with an unallocated RU, inaccordance with example embodiments of the disclosure. After the RUallocation information (e.g. the allocation pattern in the common partof HE-SIG-B), there may be RU non-allocation information. Thisnon-allocation information may indicate the non-allocated RUs. Thenon-allocation may be realized by bit map. If there are M RU partitionsin the current PPDU, M bits may be used to indicate which RU isnon-allocated. In other example embodiments, the possible non-allocatedRU to be the same as the possible RU locations. With this constraint,the non-allocated RU may be indexed in the same way as in FIG. 11 forthe 20 MHz channel. It may be easily extended to 40 MHz and/or 80 MHzchannels as well. Then 4/5/7 bits can be used for 20/40/80 MHz toindicate the non-allocated RU location. After the STA 140 knows the RUallocation pattern and non-allocated RUs, the STA 140 may remove thenon-allocated RUs from the allocation pattern and use its STA positionin the STA list in the STA specific part to derive the RU assignment foritself.

FIG. 15 depicts a flow diagram illustrating an example method 1500 forgenerating a high efficiency wireless preamble with a HE-SIG-B portionwith only a STA specific part of FIG. 10 indicating an allocation of RUsto respective STAs, in accordance with example embodiments of thedisclosure. This method 1500, in example embodiments, may be performedby the AP 110 and the processor(s) 200 thereon. At block 1502, a partialaccess identification (PAID) of one or more STAs may be identified. Inexample embodiments, the PAID may be assigned to the STA 140 by the AP110 during pre-RU assignment procedures, such as handshaking procedures.

At block 1504, a channel bandwidth may be identified. Based at least inpart upon the channel bandwidth, the processor(s) 200 may be aware ofthe possible RUs and a respective index associated with each of the RUs.At block 1506, RUs associated with each of the one or more STAs may bedetermined. This determination may be based on a stored RU allocationpattern map stored in the memory 210 of the AP 110. At block 1508, a RUallocation index associated with each of the one or more STAs may beidentified. The AP 110 may assign the RUs based on priority, requests,pre-defined schedules, randomly, and/or anticipated data needs. At block1510, a HE-SIG-A preamble section incorporating an indication of MCS andinformation for decoding the HE-SIG-B preamble section may be generated.At block 1512, the HE-SIG-B preamble section incorporating the RUallocation index associated with each PAID for each of the one or moreSTA may be generated. At block 1514, a HEW preamble may be generatedbased at least in part on the HE-SIG-A and the HE-SIG-B.

It should be noted, that the method 1500 may be modified in various waysin accordance with certain embodiments of the disclosure. For example,one or more operations of method 1500 may be eliminated or executed outof order in other embodiments of the disclosure. Additionally, otheroperations may be added to method 1500 in accordance with otherembodiments of the disclosure.

FIG. 16 depicts a flow diagram illustrating an example method 1600 forgenerating a high efficiency wireless preamble with a HE-SIG-B portionwith a common part and a STA specific part of any of FIG. 12, 13, or 14indicating an allocation of RUs to respective STAs, in accordance withexample embodiments of the disclosure. This method 1600, in exampleembodiments, may be performed by the AP 110 and the processor(s) 200thereon. At block 1602, a PAID of one or more STAs may be identified. Atblock 1604, a channel bandwidth may be identified. For example thebandwidth may be 20 MHz, 40 MHz, or 80 MHz, as depicted in FIGS. 5, 6,and 7, respectively.

At block 1606, a RU pattern may be determined based at least in part onthe number of STA and the channel bandwidth. For example, as depictedabove, there may be 26 unique RU patterns associated with a 20 MHzchannel. One of these unique patterns may be selected to satisfy thebandwidth needs of the STAs 140 to which RU allocations are to be made.At block 1608, a RU pattern index corresponding to the determined RUpattern may be identified. This may be performed by consulting a look-uptable or other form of RU block mapping to indices, that may be storedin the memory 210 or elsewhere. At block 1610, a RU for each of the oneor more STAs consistent with the RU pattern may be determined. At block1612, a HE-SIG-A preamble section may be generated by incorporating anindication of MCS and information for decoding the HE-SIG-B preamblesection. At block 1614, a RU allocation index associated with each ofthe STA may be identified.

At block 1616, the HE-SIG-B preamble section with a common partindicating the RU pattern index and a STA specific part indicating theRU allocation index associated with each of the PAID of each of the oneor more STAs may be generated. At block 1618, a HEW preamble may begenerated based at least in part on the HE-SIG-A and the HE-SIG-B.

It should be noted, that the method 1600 may be modified in various waysin accordance with certain embodiments of the disclosure. For example,one or more operations of method 1600 may be eliminated or executed outof order in other embodiments of the disclosure. Additionally, otheroperations may be added to method 1600 in accordance with otherembodiments of the disclosure.

FIG. 17 depicts a flow diagram illustrating an example method 1700 foridentifying an RU for transmitting and receiving data based at least inpart on a received PPDU, in accordance with example embodiments of thedisclosure. This method 1700, in example embodiments, may be performedby the STAs 140 and the processor(s) 310 thereon. At block 1702, a PPDUmay be received and the preamble of the PPDU may be identified. At block1704, the HE-SIG-A part of the preamble may be identified and theinformation needed to decode the HE-SIG-B part of the preamble may beidentified.

At block 1706, the PAID of the STA may be determined. In other words,the PAID of the user device 120 performing this method 1700 may beidentified. This information may have been earlier received by the STA140 from the AP 110, such as during a handshaking process or otherwise aprocess by which the AP identified the STAs with which it is to connectand/or communicate. At block 1708, the channel bandwidth may beidentified. In some example embodiments, this the channel bandwidth maybe one of 20 MHz, 40 MHz, or 80 MHz. In example embodiments, the channelbandwidth may be communicated to the STA 140 by the AP 110, such as onthe PPDU transmitted by the AP 110 and received by the STA 140.

At block 1710, the HE-SIG-B portion of the preamble may be identified.At block 1712, the RU allocation may be determined based at least inpart on the PAID, channel bandwidth, and the HE-SIG-B. At block 1714,data may be transmitted and/or received according to the RU allocation.

It should be noted, that the method 1700 may be modified in various waysin accordance with certain embodiments of the disclosure. For example,one or more operations of method 1700 may be eliminated or executed outof order in other embodiments of the disclosure. Additionally, otheroperations may be added to method 1700 in accordance with otherembodiments of the disclosure.

FIG. 18 depicts a datagram of possible example multi-user multi-inputmulti-output (MU-MIMO) resource blocks for 20 MHz 1800, 40 MHz 1810, and80 MHz 1820 bandwidth channels, in accordance with example embodimentsof the disclosure. In example embodiments, in MU-MIMO mode, the channelsmay not partitioned with as fine a granularity as when operating inOFDMA mode. In this case, the channel may be partitioned into largersub-channel(s). For example, a block of 26 tones may not be used inMU-MIMO mode. Instead, in example embodiments, a minimum size multi-user(MU) partition may be 20 MHz. Thus in this case, a 20 MHz channel mayonly have one MU partition 1802 (e.g., the whole 20 MHz channel). A 40MHz channel in MU-MIMO mode may be divided into two 20 MHz MU partitions1814 or one 40 MHz MU partition 1812. Similarly, a 80 MHz channel may bepartitioned into one 80 MHz MU partition 1822, two 40 MHz MU partitions1824, four 20 MHz MU partitions 1826, or one 40 MHz MU partition 1824and two 20 MHz MU partitions 1826.

FIG. 19 depicts a datagram of possible MU partitions of a 40 MHzbandwidth with a minimum multi-user partition size for MU-MIMO for 242tones in accordance with example embodiments of the disclosure. Theremay be two options in this case, for a MU partition scheme (e.g.,partition constellation). One option, as depicted, may be a single 40MHz partition 1902 and the other option may be two 20 MHz partitions1900.

FIG. 20 depicts a block diagram of a mechanism 2000 for resourceindication in an HE-SIG-A and HE-SIG-B field of high-efficiencypreamble, in accordance with example embodiments of the disclosure. Thetotal number of MU partitions may be indicated in the HE-SIG-A 2002. Insome example embodiments, the MU partitions may be indicated in thefield that may be otherwise used for indicating the length of HE-SIG-B.For example, in some embodiments a 4-bit field in the HE-SIG-Aindication may be used to indicate the duration (or length) of HE-SIG-B.Thus, instead of the number OFDM symbols, the HE-SIG-B length field maybe redefined in the HE-SIG-A indication. The knowledge of the HE-SIG-Bduration or length may be used by a scheduled STA to reset the automaticgain control (AGC) right after the HE-SIG-B, for the purposes ofselectively listening to the remainder of the PPDU.

If there is a common part in the HE-SIG-B indication, the length of theSIG-B common part may be derived from the SIG-B length field 2004. Insome embodiments, the scheduled STA may only use the length of thecommon part to decode the common part for learning about the totalduration of SIG-B. The spatial index for each MU partition and othercommon info that may be needed may be indicated in the SIG-B common part2006. The length of the STA-specific part of SIG-B may be determined2008. The STA-specific info may be indicated in the SIG-B specific part2010. By reusing the HE-SIG-B length field in HE-SIG-A as describedabove, an AP may indicate the bandwidth allocation pattern for theMU-MIMO PPDU. As discussed above, 0/1/3 bits may be used for 20/40/80MHz to index all of the possible bandwidth allocations with 20 MHzgranularity.

In some embodiments, given the maximum number of spatial stream of an MUpartition, the number of bits for the spatial stream allocation may bedetermined and a fixed number. For example, in some embodiments 8 bitsmay be used to indicate up to 8 streams per MU. After an STA knows thebandwidth (or MU) allocation pattern, the STA can determine the numberof bits for spatial stream allocation in the common part of the HE-SIG-Bindication. For example, if there 3 MU partitions for MU-MIMO and themaximum number of supported streams is 8, there should be 3×8=24 bitsfor spatial stream allocation.

After a STA decodes the spatial stream allocation information, each STAknows how many STAs are scheduled in the current PPDU, e.g., the sum ofspatial allocation numbers in each MU partition may be the total numberof STAs in the PPDU. In one example, there may be two RUs over 40 MHzeach with 20 MHz. The first MU partition may have 6 streams and they maybe allocated to three STAs taking 1, 2, and 3 streams respectively. Inthis example, the second MU partition may have 8 streams and they areallocated to two STAs taking 4 and 4 streams respectively. A receiverSTA knows that the total number of STAs is 3+2=5. The total number ofSTAs can be used to compute the duration of HE-SIG-B since the length ofthe STA specific part of the HE-SIG-B is proportional to the number ofscheduled STAs.

Each scheduled STA may decode the STA-specific part of the HE-SIG-Bindication and use the order listed in the STA-specific part todetermine the frequency RU and the spatial streams assigned to it. Insome embodiments, the STA listing order may be frequency resource first.In other embodiments, the STA listing order may be spatial resourcefirst.

FIG. 21 depicts a datagram that illustrates an example mechanism 2100for indicating multi-user partition 2212 and spatial partition 2122 to aplurality of station devices 140, in accordance with example embodimentsof the disclosure. After STAs 140 decode the HE-SIG-A 2110 and thecommon part of the HE-SIG-B 2122, the STAs 140 know there are 2 MUpartitions, each of which has two spatial streams assigned to two STAs140. After STAs 140 decode the RU partition and spatial partition, STA_22144 in the 2nd place in the STA-specific part 2140 of the HE-SIG-Bindication may determine that the 2nd stream 2126 in the first MUpartition 2114 is its assigned stream. Furthermore, a STA_3 in the 3rdplace 2146 in the STA-specific part 2140 of the HE-SIG-B indication maydetermine that the first stream 2228 in the second MU partition 2116 isits assigned stream. Similarly, from this preamble 2100, STA_1 2142 maydetermine that its assigned resources are stream 1 2124 of the firstpartition 2114 and STA_4 may determine that its assigned resources maybe stream 2 2230 of the second partition 2116.

As noted above, in some embodiments the stream allocation may include 8bits for up to 8 streams. In some embodiments, the number of bits and/orstreams may be reduced to 6. In some embodiments, different permutationsof the same set of stream numbers are counted as different allocationpatterns. Because the AP can permute the STA order in the allocationlist, there is no need to assign additional indexes to the stream numberpermutations. Thus, only one index may be assigned to each distinct setof stream numbers. For example, (2,1,3), (1,2,3), (3,1,2), (1,3,2),(3,2,1), and (2,3,1) may share the same allocation pattern index andonly one of the six permutations e.g. (1,2,3) may be allowed to be usedby the AP scheduling. As the spatial streams may be arbitrarily indexedas long as the corresponding beamforming vectors are appliedcorrespondingly, the performance is not affected by removing thepermutations in indication signaling.

In some embodiments, the stream indexes for the same STA 140 may becontiguous, thus reducing overhead. For example, Table 3 below lists allthe stream allocation for up to 8 streams per MU partition.

TABLE 3 Stream allocations for 8 streams per MU partitions Total numberof streams STA 1 STA 2 STA 3 STA 4 STA 5 STA 6 STA 7 STA 8 stream streamstream stream stream stream stream stream number number number numbernumber number number number 1 1 (1 pattern) 2 1 1 (2 patterns) 2 3 1 1 1(3 patterns) 1 2 3 4 1 1 1 1 (5 patterns) 1 1 2 1 3 2 2 4 5 1 1 1 1 1 (7patterns) 1 1 1 2 1 1 3 1 2 2 1 4 2 3 5 6 1 1 1 1 1 1 (11 patterns)  1 11 1 2 1 1 1 3 1 1 2 2 1 1 4 1 2 3 1 5 2 2 2 2 4 3 3 6 7 1 1 1 1 1 1 1(15 patterns)  1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 2 2 1 1 1 4 1 1 2 3 1 1 5 1 22 2 1 2 4 1 3 3 1 6 2 2 3 2 5 3 4 7 8 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 (22 patterns)  1 11 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 1 2 2 1 1 1 1 4 1 1 1 2 3 1 1 1 5 1 1 2 2 21 1 2 4 1 1 3 3 1 1 6 1 2 2 3 1 2 5 1 3 4 1 7 2 2 2 2 2 2 4 2 3 3 2 6 35 4 4 8 Total number 1 + 2 + 3 + 5 + 7 + 11 + 15 + 22 = 66 of patterns

Excluding 8 single user patterns, the remaining 58 allocation patternsmay be indexed by 6 bits. In other embodiments, the single user patternsmay be included and the allocation patterns may be indexed by 7 bits.This indexing may be provided as part of the common part of the HE-SIG-Bto indicate the spatial partitions of the resource allocations inMU-MIMO mode.

In addition to the location (e.g., stream index) and size (e.g., thenumber of streams allocated to a STA) of the stream allocation, thereceiver STA 140 may also determine the total number of streams of eachMU partition. The maximum number of all the MU partitions may determinethe number of HE-LTF symbols for a whole band. For example, in anembodiments having one MU partition with 5 streams and one MU partitionwith 4 streams, the number of LTF symbols may be the same for both MUpartitions. The number of HE-LTF symbols for the whole band may be 8 if5×5, 6×6, or 7×7 P-matrix is not defined. Thus, the number of HE-LTFsymbols may not need to be specific using an additional 3-bits. Thenumber of HE-LTF symbols may be determined from the total number ofstreams for each MU partition.

FIG. 22 depicts a flow diagram illustrating an example method 2200 forgenerating a high efficiency wireless preamble with a HE-SIG-B portionwith a common part and a STA specific part indicating an allocation ofmulti-user partitions to respective STAs 140, in accordance with exampleembodiments of the disclosure. The processes of method 2200 may beperformed by the AP 110 in cooperation with one or more elements ofenvironment 100, in example embodiments of the disclosure.

At block 2202, a MU-MIMO partition scheme may be identified. Thispartition may be based at least in part on the channel bandwidthavailable for MU-MIMO. The MU partition scheme may further be determinedbased at least in part on the bandwidth needs of each of the STAs 140,in some example embodiments. At block 2204, one or more STAs with whichthe AP is to communicate may be identified. The STAs may be identifiedby any variety of suitable handshaking procedures and/or from priorinteractions with the AP 110. In example embodiments, the process ofblock 2204 may occur prior to the process of block 2202.

At block 2206, a MU-MIMO partition for each STA of the one or more STAsmay be determined. At block 2208, one or more streams for each STA ofthe one or more STAs may be determined. In some example embodiments, theMU partition and the spatial partitions may be based at least in part onthe bandwidth needs of each of the STAs 140.

At block 2210, a HE-SIG-A field indicating the MU partition may begenerated. This MU partition indication, in example embodiments, may bebased on 0 bits for a 20 MHz channel, 1 bit for a 40 MHz channel, and/or3 bits for a 80 MHz channel. As discussed above, the MU partitionindicator may provided in a field that would otherwise specify thelength of the common part of the HE-SIG-B. At block 2212, a HE-SIG-Bcommon part indicating spatial partitions based at least in part on thestream allocations may be generated. The spatial partition indicator maybe a series of spatial partition indexes corresponding to each MUpartition.

At block 2214, HE-SIG-B STA specific parts may be generated where eachof the one or more STAs are ordered based on at least in part on MUpartition and spatial partitions indicated in the HE-SIG-A field and theHE-SIG-B common part. The STAs may be able to determine their MUpartition and spatial partition from the order of the STAs. At block2216, a signaling field may be generated based at least in part on theHE-SIG-A field, the HE-SIG-B common part, and the HE-SIG-B STA specificparts. The signaling field may be part of a preamble of a PPDU. At block2218, the signaling field may be transmitted.

It should be noted, that the method 2200 may be modified in various waysin accordance with certain embodiments of the disclosure. For example,one or more operations of method 2200 may be eliminated or executed outof order in other embodiments of the disclosure. Additionally, otheroperations may be added to method 2200 in accordance with otherembodiments of the disclosure.

FIG. 23 depicts a flow diagram illustrating an example method forreceiving a high efficiency wireless preamble with a HE-SIG-B portionwith a common part and a STA specific part indicating an allocation ofmulti-user partitions and spatial partitions to respective STAs, inaccordance with example embodiments of the disclosure. The processes ofmethod 2300 may be performed by the STAs 140 in cooperation with one ormore elements of environment 100, in example embodiments of thedisclosure.

At block 2302, a signaling field may be received. This signaling fieldmay be part of a PPDU preamble and may include high-efficiency wirelesslocal area network (HEW) portions therein. In example embodiments, thesignaling field may be the same or similar to the signaling fieldtransmitted in accordance with block 2218 of FIG. 22.

At block 2304, a HE-SIG-A, HE-SIG-B common part, and a HE-SIG-B STAspecific part of the signaling field may be identified. In exampleembodiments, this may be performed by parsing the preamble of the PPDUin which the signaling field is carried. In example embodiments, thepreamble may contain legacy headers, in which the HE-SIG-A portion ofthe HEW header may be indicated. Furthermore, information carried in theHE-SIG-A may enable determining the length of the HE-SIG-B common partand/or the STA specific parts.

At block 2306, the MU partition scheme may be determined based at leastin part on the HE-SIG-A. At block 2308, the spatial partitions may bedetermined based at least in part on the HE-SIG-B common field. At block2310, the order of the STA performing the processes of method 2300(e.g., self) may be determined may be identified within the HE-SIG-B STAspecific field. At block 2312, the MU partition and spatial partitionmay be determined based at least in part on the order. At block 2314,data may transmitted and/or received in accordance with the MU partitionand spatial partition.

It should be noted, that the method 2300 may be modified in various waysin accordance with certain embodiments of the disclosure. For example,one or more operations of method 2300 may be eliminated or executed outof order in other embodiments of the disclosure. Additionally, otheroperations may be added to method 2300 in accordance with otherembodiments of the disclosure.

FIG. 24 is a datagram of an example multi-user partition 2400 indexingfor a 80 MHz channel, in accordance with example embodiment of thedisclosure. In these example embodiments, the HE-SIG-B indication mayonly include an STA-specific part and may not include a common part. Insuch embodiments, each scheduled STA may be assumed to only decode itscorresponding specific part. The allocation information may bedistributed in each scheduled STAs specific part. In exampleembodiments, 3 bits may be used to indicate the 7 possible MU partitionswith their locations and sizes. It should be appreciated that suchindexing may be easily extended to other bandwidths. For example, 0/2/3bits may be used for 20/40/80 MHz allocations.

As noted above, in such embodiments the stream allocation may only be ineach scheduled STAs specific part Given the maximum number of supportedstreams in one MU partition, the stream index for each STA may beindicated using Table 4 and Table 5 below.

TABLE 4 Stream index for 8 streams per MU partition Number of Number oflocations allocated of the streams to allocated Locations of the streamsthe STA streams allocated the STA 1 8 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 2 4 (1, 2),(3, 4), (5, 6), (7, 8) 3 3 (1, 2, 3), (4, 5, 6), (6, 7, 8) 4 2 (1, 2, 3,4), (5, 6, 7, 8) 5 1 (12, 3, 4, 5) 6 1 (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) 7 1 (1, 2, 3,4, 5, 6, 7) 8 1 (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8) Total 21

TABLE 5 Stream index for 4 streams per MU partition Number of Number oflocations allocated of the streams to allocated Locations of the streamsthe STA streams allocated the STA 1 4 1, 2, 3, 4 2 2 (1, 2), (3, 4) 3 1(1, 2, 3) 4 1 (1, 2, 3, 4) Total 8

In example embodiments, 5 (or 3) bits may be used to indicate the streamallocation for up to 8 (or 4) streams. The stream allocation index mayindicate to the receiver STA which streams are allocated to it. Toindicate the number of LTF symbols, the table entries of each of thespatial partitions of Table 4 and Table 5 may be indexed. The index mayindicate which streams are allocated to the STA 140 but also the maximumnumber of streams across the band. For example, if the number of LTFsymbols may only be 4 or 8, the 21+8=29 locations in Table 4 and Table 4may be indexed using 5 bits. After decoding the index, the receiver STAmay determine which streams are allocated to it and whether 4 or 8 isthe number of LTF symbols.

FIG. 25 depicts a flow diagram illustrating an example method forgenerating a high efficiency wireless preamble with a HE-SIG-B portionwith only a STA specific part indicating an allocation index of amulti-user partition and an index of a spatial partition, in accordancewith example embodiments of the disclosure. The processes of method 2500may be performed by the AP 110 in cooperation with one or more elementsof environment 100, in example embodiments of the disclosure. At block2502, one or more STAs with which to communicate and a MU partitionpattern may be identified. At block 2504, a MU partition for each of theone or more STAs and a corresponding MU partition index may bedetermined. At block 2506, a spatial index corresponding to each of theone or more STAs may be determined. At block 2508, a HE-SIG-B fieldincorporating an identifier of each of the STAs along with the MUpartition index and spatial index corresponding to each STA may begenerated. At block 2510, a signaling field based at least in part onthe HE-SIG-B and the MU partition pattern may be generated. At block2512, the signaling field may be transmitted.

It should be noted, that the method 2500 may be modified in various waysin accordance with certain embodiments of the disclosure. For example,one or more operations of method 2500 may be eliminated or executed outof order in other embodiments of the disclosure. Additionally, otheroperations may be added to method 2500 in accordance with otherembodiments of the disclosure.

FIG. 26 depicts a flow diagram illustrating an example method forgenerating a high efficiency wireless preamble with a HE-SIG-B portionwith only a STA specific part indicating an allocation index of amulti-user partition and an index of a spatial partition, in accordancewith example embodiments of the disclosure. The processes of method 2600may be performed by the STAs 140 in cooperation with one or moreelements of environment 100, in example embodiments of the disclosure.At block 2602, a signaling field may be received. At block 2604, a MUpartition pattern may be identified from the signaling field. At block2606, a MU pattern index and a spatial index corresponding to the STAperforming the processes of method 2600 (e.g., self-identifier) may beidentified. At block 2608, MU partition and stream partition may bedetermined based at least in part on the MU partition index, the spatialindex, and the MU partition pattern.

It should be noted, that the method 2600 may be modified in various waysin accordance with certain embodiments of the disclosure. For example,one or more operations of method 2600 may be eliminated or executed outof order in other embodiments of the disclosure. Additionally, otheroperations may be added to method 2600 in accordance with otherembodiments of the disclosure.

Embodiments described herein may be implemented using hardware,software, and/or firmware, for example, to perform the methods and/oroperations described herein. Certain embodiments described herein may beprovided as one or more tangible machine-readable media storingmachine-executable instructions that, if executed by a machine, causethe machine to perform the methods and/or operations described herein.The tangible machine-readable media may include, but is not limited to,any type of disk including floppy disks, optical disks, compact diskread-only memories (CD-ROMs), compact disk rewritable (CD-RWs), andmagneto-optical disks, semiconductor devices such as read-only memories(ROMs), random access memories (RAMs) such as dynamic and static RAMs,erasable programmable read-only memories (EPROMs), electrically erasableprogrammable read-only memories (EEPROMs), flash memories, magnetic oroptical cards, or any type of tangible media suitable for storingelectronic instructions. The machine may include any suitable processingor computing platform, device or system and may be implemented using anysuitable combination of hardware and/or software. The instructions mayinclude any suitable type of code and may be implemented using anysuitable programming language. In other embodiments, machine-executableinstructions for performing the methods and/or operations describedherein may be embodied in firmware. Additionally, in certainembodiments, a special-purpose computer or a particular machine may beformed in order to identify actuated input elements and process theidentifications.

Various features, aspects, and embodiments have been described herein.The features, aspects, and embodiments are susceptible to combinationwith one another as well as to variation and modification, as will beunderstood by those having skill in the art. The present disclosureshould, therefore, be considered to encompass such combinations,variations, and modifications.

The terms and expressions which have been employed herein are used asterms of description and not of limitation, and there is no intention,in the use of such terms and expressions, of excluding any equivalentsof the features shown and described (or portions thereof), and it isrecognized that various modifications are possible within the scope ofthe claims. Other modifications, variations, and alternatives are alsopossible. Accordingly, the claims are intended to cover all suchequivalents.

While certain embodiments of the invention have been described inconnection with what is presently considered to be the most practicaland various embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention isnot to be limited to the disclosed embodiments, but on the contrary, isintended to cover various modifications and equivalent arrangementsincluded within the scope of the claims. Although specific terms areemployed herein, they are used in a generic and descriptive sense only,and not for purposes of limitation.

This written description uses examples to disclose certain embodimentsof the invention, including the best mode, and also to enable any personskilled in the art to practice certain embodiments of the invention,including making and using any devices or systems and performing anyincorporated methods. The patentable scope of certain embodiments of theinvention is defined in the claims, and may include other examples thatoccur to those skilled in the art. Such other examples are intended tobe within the scope of the claims if they have structural elements thatdo not differ from the literal language of the claims, or if theyinclude equivalent structural elements with insubstantial differencesfrom the literal language of the claims.

Various embodiments of the invention may be implemented fully orpartially in software and/or firmware. This software and/or firmware maytake the form of instructions contained in or on a non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium. Those instructions may then be readand executed by one or more processors to enable performance of theoperations described herein. The instructions may be in any suitableform, such as but not limited to source code, compiled code, interpretedcode, executable code, static code, dynamic code, and the like. Such acomputer-readable medium may include any tangible non-transitory mediumfor storing information in a form readable by one or more computers,such as but not limited to read only memory (ROM); random access memory(RAM); magnetic disk storage media; optical storage media; a flashmemory, etc.

According to example embodiments of the disclosure, there may be one ormore non-transitory computer-readable media comprisingcomputer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or moreprocessors, configure the one or more processors to perform operationscomprising: identifying a first partial access identification (PAID)corresponding to a first station device (STA); identifying a second PAIDcorresponding to a second STA; determining a first resource unit (RU) toallocate to the first STA; determining a second RU to allocate to thesecond STA; generating a high efficiency wireless (HEW) preamble basedat least in part on the first PAID, second PAID, an indication of thefirst RU allocation, and an indication of the second RU allocation,wherein the indication of the first RU allocation comprises a first RUallocation index, wherein the first RU allocation index identifies thefirst RU on a RU allocation pattern, wherein the indication of thesecond RU allocation comprises a second RU allocation index, and whereinthe second RU allocation index identifies the second RU on the RUallocation pattern; and initiating transmission, via a transceiver andone or more antennas, of the HEW preamble. In example embodiment, theoperations further comprise generating a protocol data unit, wherein theprotocol data unit includes the HEW preamble. In further exampleembodiments, generating the HEW preamble comprises generating a firstportion of the HEW preamble, wherein the first portion of the preambleincludes a STA specific part indicating the first PAID, the first RUallocation index, the second PAID, and the second RU allocation index.In still further example embodiments, the first portion of the HEWpreamble further includes a first modulation and coding scheme (MCS)index corresponding to the first STA, a first cyclic redundancy check(CRC) corresponding to the first RU allocation index, a second MCS indexcorresponding to the second STA, and a second CRC corresponding to thesecond RU allocation index. In yet further example embodiments,generating the HEW preamble comprises generating a first portion of theHEW preamble, wherein the first portion of the preamble includes acommon part and a STA specific part, wherein the common part indicatesthe RU allocation pattern corresponding to a mapping of a plurality ofRU allocation to corresponding respective RU allocation indices, whereinthe first RU allocation index and second RU allocation index areselected from among the respective RU allocation indices. In someaspects, the HEW preamble includes a second portion includinginformation to decode the first part of the HEW preamble. Further still,in accordance with embodiments of the disclosure, the information todecode the first part of the HEW preamble includes at least one of: (i)a modulation and coding scheme (MCS) of the first portion; (ii) a lengthof the first portion; or (iii) a guard interval of the first portion. Inother example embodiments, the preamble includes a legacy portionconfigured to provide information for backward compatibility.

According to some example embodiments of the disclosure, there may be awireless device, comprising: at least one antenna configured to transmitwireless signals; a transceiver communicatively coupled to the at leastone antenna; at least one memory that stores computer-executableinstructions; and at least one processor configured to access the atleast one memory, wherein the at least one processor is communicativelycoupled to the transceiver and is further configured to execute thecomputer-executable instructions to: identify a first identifiercorresponding to a first station device (STA); identify a secondidentifier corresponding to a second STA; determine a first resourceunit (RU) index corresponding to a first RU allocation to the first STA,wherein the first RU allocation is selected from a RU allocationpattern; determine a second RU index corresponding to a second RUallocation to the second STA, wherein the first RU allocation isselected from a RU allocation pattern; generate a high efficiencywireless (HEW) preamble based at least in part on the first identifier,the second identifier, the first RU allocation index, and the second RUallocation index; and transmit, via the transceiver and using theantenna, the HEW preamble. In example embodiments, the first identifieris a partial access identifier (PAID) of the first STA. In still furtherexample embodiments, generating the HEW preamble comprises generating acommon part of the HEW preamble and a STA specific part of the HEWpreamble, wherein the common part indicates the RU allocation patternand the STA specific part includes the first RU index and the second RUindex. In some further example embodiments, the HEW preamble includes asecond portion including information to decode the first part of the HEWpreamble.

According to example embodiments of the disclosure, there may be one ormore non-transitory computer-readable media comprisingcomputer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or moreprocessors, configure the one or more processors to perform operationscomprising: identifying a first resource unit (RU) allocation indexcorresponding to a first resource allocation to a first station device(STA) with a first identifier; identifying a second RU allocation indexcorresponding to a second resource allocation to a second station device(STA) with a second identifier; generating a common part of a firstsignaling field by ordering first RU index before the second RU index;generating a STA specific part of the first signaling field by orderingthe first identifier before the second identifier; generating a secondsignaling field having information for decoding the first signalingfield; and generating a high efficiency wireless (HEW) preamble based atleast in part on the first signaling field and the second signalingfield. In further example embodiments, the operations further comprisegenerating a protocol data unit, wherein the protocol data unit includesthe HEW preamble. In still further example embodiments, the order of thefirst identifier before the second identifier and the order of the firstRU index before the second RU index indicates that the first STAcorresponds to the first RU allocation and the second STA corresponds tothe second RU allocation.

In accordance with example embodiments of the disclosure, there may be awireless device, comprising: at least one antenna configured to transmitwireless signals; a transceiver communicatively coupled to the at leastone antenna; at least one memory that stores computer-executableinstructions; and at least one processor configured to access the atleast one memory, wherein the at least one processor is communicativelycoupled to the transceiver and is further configured to execute thecomputer-executable instructions to: receive a high efficiency wireless(HEW) preamble with a signaling field, the signaling field having acommon part and a STA specific part; determine, from the common part, aresource unit (RU) allocation pattern corresponding to a mapping of aplurality of RU allocations to corresponding respective RU allocationindices; identifying, from the STA specific part, a RU allocation index;determine a RU allocation based at least in part on the RU allocationindex and the RU allocation pattern; and transmit or receive dataaccording to the RU allocation. In further example embodiments,determining the RU allocation further comprises: identifying anidentifier corresponding to the wireless device; identifying theidentifier within the STA specific part of the signaling field; andidentifying a predetermined number of bits following the identifier inthe STA specific part of the signaling field as the RU allocation index.In still further example embodiments, the identifier is a partial accessidentifier (PAID) corresponding to the wireless device. In yet furtherexample embodiments, the HEW preamble is received, from an access pointdevice, as part of a protocol data unit.

In accordance with example embodiments of the disclosure, there may beone or more non-transitory computer-readable media comprisingcomputer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or moreprocessors, configure the one or more processors to perform operationscomprising: receive a protocol data unit (PDU); identify a highefficiency wireless (HEW) preamble of the PDU; identify, by the STA, afirst portion of the HEW preamble and a second portion of the HEWpreamble; determine a resource unit (RU) allocation pattern from thefirst portion of the HEW preamble; and determine a RU allocation indexof a station device (STA) from the second portion of the HEW; anddetermine an RU allocation of the STA based at least in part on the RUallocation pattern and the RU allocation index. In some exampleembodiments, determining the RU allocation further comprises theoperations of: identify an identifier corresponding to the STA; identifythe identifier within the STA specific part of the signaling field; andidentify a predetermined number of bits following the identifier in theSTA specific part of the signaling field as the RU allocation index. Instill further example embodiments, the identifier is a partial accessidentifier (PAID) corresponding to the wireless device.

According to example embodiments of the disclosure, there may be one ormore non-transitory computer-readable media comprisingcomputer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or moreprocessors, configure the one or more processors to perform operationscomprising: identifying one or more station devices (STA) to which amulti-user (MU) partition and spatial partition are to be assigned;generating a first field in a frame, wherein the first field indicatesone or more (MU) partitions of a channel bandwidth; generating a commonpart of a second field, wherein the common part of the second fieldindicates one or more spatial partitions of each of the one or more MUpartitions; generating a STA specific part of the second field, whereinthe STA specific field indicates an ordered set of identifiers, each ofthe identifiers corresponding to a respective STA; generating the frameincluding the first field, the common part of the second field, the STAspecific part of the second field; and initiating transmission, via atransceiver, the frame. In some example embodiments, the frame is apreamble of a physical layer convergence protocol (PLCP) protocol dataunit (PPDU). In still further example embodiments, the identifiers are apartial access identifier (PAID) of each of the corresponding respectiveSTAs. In yet further example embodiments, the one or more STAs include afirst STA with a first identifier and a second STA with a secondidentifier, wherein the one or more MU partitions include a firstpartition and a second partition, wherein the STA specific part of thesecond field includes the second identifier after the first identifier,and wherein the first STA is allocated the first MU partition and thesecond STA is allocated the second MU partition. In accordance with thedisclosure, the common part of the second partition indicates a onespatial partition for each of the first MU partition and the second MUpartition using a first spatial index corresponding to the first MUpartition and a second spatial index corresponding to the second spatialindex. In still further example embodiments, the minimum bandwidth ofeach of the one or more MU partitions operating in a multi-usermulti-input multi-output (MU-MIMO) mode is 20 MHz.

According to example embodiments, there may be a wireless device,comprising: at least one antenna configured to transmit wirelesssignals; a transceiver communicatively coupled to the at least oneantenna; at least one memory that stores computer-executableinstructions; and at least one processor configured to access the atleast one memory, wherein the at least one processor is communicativelycoupled to the transceiver and is further configured to execute thecomputer-executable instructions to: providing a multi-user (MU)partition indication in a HE-SIG-A field in a frame; providing a spatialpartition indication in a HE-SIG-B field in the frame, the HE-SIG-Bfield comprising a common part and a station device (STA) specific part,the common part comprising the spatial partition indication; providingat least one identifier corresponding to respective STA in the STAspecific part of the HE-SIG-B field; and generating a preamble structurebased at least in part on the HE-SIG-A field and the HE-SIG-B field. Insome example embodiments, the MU partition indication is based at leastin part on one or more MU partition index bits. In further exampleembodiments, the MU partition indication is further based at least inpart on a channel bandwidth. In still further example embodiments, anorder of the first STA field and the second STA field indicate the orderof frequency resource mapping.

According to example embodiments of the disclosure, there may be one ormore non-transitory computer-readable media comprisingcomputer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or moreprocessors, configure the one or more processors to perform operationscomprising: identifying a first multi-user (MU) partition indexcorresponding to a first MU partition of a first station device (STA)with a first identifier; identifying a second MU partition indexcorresponding to a second MU partition of a second STA with a secondidentifier; identifying a first spatial index corresponding to a firstspatial partition of the first STA; identifying a second spatial indexcorresponding to a second spatial partition of the second STA;generating a signaling field by ordering the first identifier, the firstMU partition index, the first spatial index, the second identifier, thesecond MU partition index, the second spatial index; and initiatingtransmission, via a transceiver and one or more antennas, the signalingfield. In some example embodiments, the signaling field is a firstsignaling field, and wherein the operations further comprise: generatinga second signaling field, wherein the signaling field includesinformation to decode the first signaling field. In further exampleembodiments, the signaling field is part of a high efficiency wireless(HEW) preamble of a physical layer convergence protocol (PLCP) protocoldata unit (PPDU).

According to further example embodiments of the disclosure, there may bea wireless device, comprising: at least one antenna configured totransmit wireless signals; a transceiver communicatively coupled to theat least one antenna; at least one memory that storescomputer-executable instructions; and at least one processor configuredto access the at least one memory, wherein the at least one processor iscommunicatively coupled to the transceiver and is further configured toexecute the computer-executable instructions to: receive a highefficiency wireless (HEW) preamble having a signaling field, thesignaling field having a station device (STA) specific part; identify anidentifier of the wireless device; detect the identifier in the STAspecific part; determine, based on the detection, a multi-user (MU)partition index and a spatial index corresponding to the wirelessdevice; determine, based at least in part on the MU partition index, aMU partition allocated to the wireless device; and determine, based atleast in part on the spatial index, one or more streams allocated to thewireless device. In some example embodiments, the at least one processoris further configured to transmit or receive data according to the MUpartition and the one or more streams. In still further exampleembodiments, the identifier is a partial access identifier (PAID) of thewireless device.

According to yet further example embodiments of the disclosure, theremay be one or more non-transitory computer-readable media comprisingcomputer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or moreprocessors, configure the one or more processors to perform operationscomprising: receiving a high efficiency wireless (HEW) preamble with afirst signaling field and a second signaling field, the second signalingfield having a common part and a station device (STA) specific part;determining, from the first signaling field, one or more multi-user (MU)partitions; determining, from the common part, one or more spatialpartitions; identifying an identifier of a STA; identifying, from theSTA specific part, an order of the identifier form among one or moreidentifiers; determining, based at least in part on the order, aparticular MU partition and a particular spatial partition correspondingto the STA; and transmit or receive data according to the particular MUpartition and the particular spatial partition. In some exampleembodiments, the identifiers are a partial access identifier (PAID) ofeach of the corresponding respective STAs. In further exampleembodiments, the identifier is a first identifier, and wherein the STAspecific part includes a second identifier corresponding to a secondparticular STA. In still further example embodiments, the order issecond and there are two MU partitions, wherein the STA is allocated thesecond MU partition.

The claimed invention is:
 1. One or more non-transitorycomputer-readable media comprising computer-executable instructionsthat, when executed by one or more processors, configure the one or moreprocessors to perform operations comprising: identifying a first partialaccess identification (PAID) corresponding to a first station device(STA); identifying a second PAID corresponding to a second STA;determining a first resource unit (RU) to allocate to the first STA,wherein an indication of first tones of the first RU is associated witha first position of a common part of a signal field of a high efficiencywireless (HEW) preamble, wherein the HEW preamble comprises a firstsignal field preceding the signal field, and wherein the signal fieldcomprises the common part and an STA specific part; determining a secondRU to allocate to the second STA, wherein an indication of second tonesof the second RU is associated with a second position of the commonpart; determining the STA specific part, wherein the STA specific partcomprises an indication of the first PAID and an indication of thesecond PAID, wherein the indication of the first PAID is in a firstposition of the STA specific part and the indication of the second PAIDis in a second position of the STA specific part, and wherein the firstposition of the STA specific part is assigned the first position of thecommon part and the second position of the STA specific part is assignedthe second position of the common part; and initiating transmission ofthe HEW preamble.
 2. The one or more non-transitory computer-readablemedia of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise generating aprotocol data unit, wherein the protocol data unit includes the HEWpreamble, and wherein the first signal field includes an HE-SIG-A fieldand the signal field includes an HE-SIG-B field.
 3. The one or morenon-transitory computer-readable media of claim 1, wherein the signalfield further includes a first modulation and coding scheme (MCS) indexcorresponding to the first STA, a first cyclic redundancy check (CRC)corresponding to a first RU allocation index, a second MCS indexcorresponding to the second STA, and a second CRC corresponding to asecond RU allocation index.
 4. The one or more non-transitorycomputer-readable media of claim 1, wherein the common part indicates anRU allocation pattern corresponding to a mapping of a plurality of RUallocation to corresponding respective RU allocation indices.
 5. The oneor more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 1, wherein thefirst signal field comprises information that enables decoding of thesignal field, wherein the information includes at least one of: (i) amodulation and coding scheme (MCS) of the signal field; (ii) a length ofthe signal field; or (iii) a guard interval of the signal field.
 6. Theone or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 1, whereinthe preamble includes a legacy portion configured to provide informationfor backward compatibility.
 7. A wireless device, comprising: at leastone memory that stores computer-executable instructions; and at leastone processor configured to access the at least one memory, wherein theat least one processor is communicatively coupled to a transceiver andis further configured to execute the computer-executable instructionsto: identify a first identifier corresponding to a first station device(STA); identify a second identifier corresponding to a second STA;determine a first resource unit (RU) index corresponding to a first RUallocation to the first STA, wherein an indication of first tones of thefirst RU allocation is associated with a first position of a common partof a signal field of a high efficiency wireless (HEW) preamble, whereinthe HEW preamble comprises a first signal field preceding the signalfield, and wherein the signal field comprises the common part and an STAspecific part; determine a second RU index corresponding to a second RUallocation to the second STA, wherein an indication of second tones ofthe second RU allocation is associated with a second position of thecommon part; determine the STA specific part, wherein the STA specificpart comprises an indication of the first identifier and an indicationof the second identifier, wherein the indication of the first identifieris in a first position of the STA specific part and the indication ofthe second identifier is in a second position of the STA specific part,and wherein the first position of the STA specific part is assigned thefirst position of the common part and the second position of the STAspecific part is assigned the second position of the common part; andinitiate transmitting the HEW preamble.
 8. The wireless device of claim7, wherein the first identifier is a partial access identifier (PAID) ofthe first STA.
 9. One or more non-transitory computer-readable mediacomprising computer-executable instructions that, when executed by oneor more processors, configure the one or more processors to performoperations comprising: identifying a first resource unit (RU) allocationindex corresponding to a first RU allocation to a first station device(STA) with a first identifier, wherein an indication of first tones ofthe first RU allocation is associated with a first position of a commonpart of a signal field of a high efficiency wireless (HEW) preamble,wherein the HEW preamble comprises a first signal field preceding thesignal field, and wherein the signal field comprises the common part andan STA specific part; identifying a second RU allocation indexcorresponding to a second RU allocation to a second station device (STA)with a second identifier, wherein an indication of second tones of thesecond RU allocation is associated with a second position of the commonpart; determining the STA specific part, wherein the STA specific partcomprises an indication of a first device identifier and an indicationof a second device identifier, wherein the indication of the firstdevice identifier is in a first position of the STA specific part andthe indication of the second device identifier is in a second positionof the STA specific part, and wherein the first position of the STAspecific part is assigned the first position of the common part and thesecond position of the STA specific part is assigned the second positionof the common part; and causing to send the HEW.
 10. The one or morenon-transitory computer-readable media of claim 9, wherein theoperations further comprise generating a protocol data unit, wherein theprotocol data unit includes the HEW preamble, wherein causing to sendthe HEW preamble comprises causing to send the protocol data unit.
 11. Awireless device, comprising: at least one antenna configured to transmitwireless signals; a transceiver communicatively coupled to the at leastone antenna; at least one memory that stores computer-executableinstructions; and at least one processor configured to access the atleast one memory, wherein the at least one processor is communicativelycoupled to the transceiver and is further configured to execute thecomputer-executable instructions to: receive a high efficiency wireless(HEW) preamble comprising a first signal field and a second signalfield, wherein the second signal field comprises a common part and astation device (STA) specific part; determine, from the common part, afirst resource unit (RU) allocation, wherein an indication of firsttones of the first RU allocation is in a first position of the commonpart, wherein the common part comprises an indication of second tones ofa second RU allocation, and wherein the indication of the second RUallocation is in a second position of the common part; identify, fromthe STA specific part, a first identifier associated with the wirelessdevice, wherein the first identifier is in a first position of the STAspecific part, wherein the STA specific part comprises a secondidentifier associated with another wireless device, wherein the secondidentifier is in a second position of the STA specific part, and whereinthe first position of the STA specific part is assigned the firstposition of the common part and the second position of the STA specificpart is assigned the second position of the common part; and initiatetransmission or receipt of data according to the first RU allocation.12. The wireless device of claim 11, wherein the first identifierassociated with the wireless device is a partial access identifier(PAID) corresponding to the wireless device.
 13. The wireless device ofclaim 11, wherein the HEW preamble is received, from an access pointdevice, as part of a protocol data unit.
 14. One or more non-transitorycomputer-readable media comprising computer-executable instructionsthat, when executed by one or more processors, configure the one or moreprocessors to perform operations comprising: receiving, at a wirelessdevice, a protocol data unit (PDU); identifying a high efficiencywireless (HEW) preamble of the PDU, the HEW preamble comprising a firstsignal field and a second signal field, wherein the second signal fieldcomprises a common part and a station device (STA) specific part;determining a first resource unit (RU) allocation, wherein an indicationof first tones of the first RU allocation is in a first position of thecommon part, wherein the common part comprises an indication of secondtones of a second RU allocation, and wherein the indication of thesecond tones of the second RU allocation is in a second position of thecommon part; and identifying, from the STA specific part, a firstidentifier associated with the wireless device, wherein the firstidentifier is in a first position of the STA specific part, wherein theSTA specific part comprises a second identifier associated with anotherwireless device, wherein the second identifier is in a second positionof the STA specific part, and wherein the first position of the STAspecific part is assigned the first position of the common part and thesecond position of the STA specific part is assigned the second positionof the common part.
 15. The one or more non-transitory computer-readablemedia of claim 14, wherein the first identifier associated with thewireless device is a partial access identifier (PAID).
 16. The one ormore non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 14, wherein thefirst signal field includes an indication bit that indicates operationin at least one of: (i) an orthogonal frequency division multiple access(OFDMA) mode of operation; (ii) a non-OFDMA mode of operation; (iii) asingle user mode of operation; or (iv) multi-user (MU) multi-inputMulti-output (MIMO) mode of operation.
 17. The one or morenon-transitory computer-readable media of claim 14, wherein a resourceallocation pattern is indicated in the common part by one of: (i) fourresource allocation pattern bits for a 20 megahertz (MHz) channel; (ii)five resource allocation pattern bits for a 40 MHz channel; or (iii)five resource allocation pattern bits for a 40 MHz channel.